Microsoft Research has launched The Path of Go, an Xbox Live Arcade game based on ‘Go’, the ancient Chinese board game.

Go is a strategy game that is at least 2,500 years old and originated from Ancient China. Although it’s not known exactly when the game was invented, by the 3rd century BC it was already a popular pastime. The game is played by two players who take turns placing black and white stones on the vacant intersections of a grid. The objective of the game is to control a larger portion of the board than the opponent. It is a game that takes minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master.

Go is very challenging to program for a broad audience. It requires an extremely intricate artificial intelligence (AI) in order to make it a challenging gaming experience.

We would like to acknowledge the support of the Microsoft Technical Computing Initiative (TCI) to the Go AI research.